Here at Elevation Solutions, we are sensitive to the fact that COVID-19 may have an impact on your team’s operations. We offer our support and guidance to help you navigate this change. Given we are a 100% remote team that often partners with organizations managing all stages of change, we’d like to share some insights with you that can help you navigate this transition and lessen the impact.
Coping With Change In Your Environment:
- Revisit the Change Management Lifecycle. At a high level, think of what Identify, Engage and Implement mean for your team when it comes to shifts large and small. Simply categorizing aspects of recent changes within these buckets can encourage brainstorming and lead to quick adjustments.
- Conserve energy, resources and time. Have a creative idea to keep responses to constituents timely with less effort? Know of a new way your team can connect with clients and business partners quickly? Share it! Now is a time to utilize creativity.
- Work toward resilience. Whether that’s resilient processes and procedures or a more resilient you, incorporate the necessary changes or updates to help you feel prepared for any further shifts in your day-to-day.
- Communicate often and clearly. The Elevation team ensures our weekly conversations are structured as well as informative. We’ve also increased how often we utilize Slack to share work-related as well as “good to know” information.
- Focus on staying balanced. Continue to manage your workload as you would if external environments weren’t shifting as they are now. We use Trello as a customizable visual that can be used for projects, personal lists, etc.
- Check in with yourself. Are you having trouble focusing? Switch tasks as needed or take a short break. Our mental health is key. Word of the day, Master Class, and Duolingo provide some respite from day to day tasks while keeping you focused and mentally engaged.
Working From A New Space:
- If possible, set up a comfortable workspace in a separate area or room that you only use during work hours. Can’t move areas? Try slightly transforming your space during work hours with different lighting or ambient music.
- Wake-up and get ready in the morning as you would for your workday in the office. This can promote impromptu face to face conversations if your team is utilizing video platforms.
- Set your work hours and take breaks as you normally would in the office. It’s easy to work more hours than normal (or necessary) when you don’t need to commute. When your workday is done, close your computer and leave it in your home workspace.
- Set boundaries with your family and friends, especially if they are home while you’re working. Consider having an ‘I’m Busy’ or ‘Stop’ sign hanging on your office door so they know when not to interrupt.
- Use a noise cancelling headset to keep calls quiet and also prevent background noise in your own home from distracting you.
Please let us know if we can provide any additional resources or support to your organization. After all, we’re all on the same airplane!
